BENICIA >> Mayor Elizabeth Patterson sent out an “e-alert” email Thursday to address the letter of a constituent who opposes allowing legalized, regulated cannabis dispensaries and other businesses in town.

The mayor said that she saw the letter as a good example of the feedback she has gotten from people against the idea.

“The email below captures the gist of much of the emails and testimony at meetings about the City Council considering zoning ordinance and regulations for cannabis,” she wrote. “My reply below this email reflects what I have heard at council meetings, and learning, researching, reviewing documents, conferences, site visits and interviews about cannabis.”

The council is set to take a final vote on Feb. 6 whether or not to allow two dispensaries in town, as well as manufacturing, testing, and cultivation.

As it stands, three of the five council members — the mayor, Vice Mayor Steve Young, and Councilmember Alan Schwartzman — have all made statements in past meetings that they will most likely be voting “yes” to cannabis, giving the measure a majority vote needed to pass.

“When the 26,997 people of this community voted the five of you in as administrators over our city, we entrusted you with tremendous responsibility,” began the letter sent by resident Denise Lee. “If you make a decision that can potentially bring harm, crime, moral decay or increased monetary burdens to the community, all 26,997 people who live here will be impacted.”

Lee compared the acceptance of legal cannabis as a “trojan horse” that would come in under the “facade of supposed increased tax revenues, while the dangers inside of the horse, a known drug with potential harmful effects, marijuana, is being ignored.”

The letter’s author also entreated the mayor and council to emulate the “best leaders in history,” those who serve something greater than themselves. She said that she moved to Benicia in order to protect her children from the outside influence of drugs. Lee also drew a line in the sand, laying any bad outcomes directly at the feet of the mayor:

“When you made the decision to bring this drug into the community, you became morally responsible for any harmful consequences that it brings with it.”

In her response, the mayor first defended her commitment to public service and the community’s health. She cited her record of 35-plus years of work in the public sector as well as her work to clean up the air and water in Benicia.

Then Patterson brought up the fact that marijuana has been in Benicia for years.

“As long as I have lived in Benicia, since, 1983, cannabis has been here,” she wrote.

The difference between illegal cannabis and legal cannabis, she argues, is that the black market has done nothing to protect youth. An open market, she said, would bring better regulation environmentally, socially, and economically.

“The black market of drugs does not follow the law. An open market gives us many more tools to fight the ongoing and current illegal sale of drugs, including cannabis to minors,” she wrote.

Revenues received from taxes can be used to fund law enforcement, she wrote.

The mayor also discussed the country’s history with cannabis, something that Councilmember Schwartzman has also brought up during council meetings. Both assert that it was accepted for hundreds of years as a medicinal plant, yet criminalized in 1935 by the federal government. At that time it was classified it as a schedule one drug — as dangerous as heroin. “Not even close,” she wrote.

There was one thing in the mayor’s letter that she had never brought up at a council meeting, and that is her concern that Benicia could become a “go-to town” in Solano for legal pot. If passed, Benicia will be one of the very few towns in the county to do so, so far.

“This is our challenge,” she wrote, “and we have indicated that only two retail cannabis stores would be allowed.”

Ultimately, the divide between the pro and con sides in town comes down to a moral issue. The mayor acknowledged this at the end of her letter.

“There … is a moral divide. Some people think cannabis is a moral issue and some people do not. In fact, the majority of Benicians do not think it is a moral issue, which is why they supported legalizing cannabis.”

Patterson is referring to the more than 64 percent of voters in town that approved legalization.

February’s first council meeting will be devoted solely to this issue. Constituents will be invited to voice their opinions during the public comment portion. The meeting will take place on Feb. 6, at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.